Re: Virginia Tech Shooting

At least 22 people were killed today, some of them students, and about two dozen more injured during shootings at Virginia Tech, some of them in a classroom, the police said. A gunman was also shot to death, officials said.

The attack was the deadliest campus shooting in American history. According to several news agencies, the death toll continued to climb and could be as high 32.

“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” said the university’s president, Charles Steger.

There were two shootings on the campus in Blacksburg, Va., and in each case fatalities with “multiple shooting victims,” he said.

The shootings started early in the morning and as they unfolded, many of the details emerged from witnesses who recorded images on their cellphones or described fellow students jumping out of campus building windows. The university has more than 25,000 full-time students on a campus that is spread out over 2,600 acres.

Up until today, the deadliest campus shooting in United States history was in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire, killing 16 people before he was gunned down by police. In the Columbine High attack in 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves.

A police official at Virginia Tech, Wendell Flinchum, said there were “at least 20 fatalities,” and that some of the victims were shot in the classroom. News of the number of the fatalities sent up an audible gasp in the news conference, said one television reporter in the broadcast.

While few confirmed details about the gunman and the motive were clear, students told reporters at WTKR, a local television station, that the gunman had been looking for his girlfriend, and at one of the locations he lined up some students and shot them all, according to Mike Mather, a reporter for the station.

At least 22 people were injured. At least 17 Virginia Tech students were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries at Montgomery Regional Hospital, and four of them were in surgery, according to a hospital spokesperson. At Lewis-Gale Medical Center, in Salem, Va., four students and a staff member were treated. Two were in stable condition, and the conditions of the other three were described as “undetermined.”

Officials said there could have been more people who were injured and taken to other medical facilities.

President Bush was “horrified” at the news of the shooting, and expressed deep concern for the families of the victims, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. President Bush said he would make federal assets available to the school and to the community.

One student captured partial images, broadcast on CNN, using his cellphone video camera showing grainy dark-clad figures on the street outside of campus buildings. Popping sounds from the gunfire were audible.

“This place is in a state of panic,” said a student who was interviewed on CNN, Shaver Deyerle. “Nobody knew what was going on at first.”

He said that the shooting reminded him of the Columbine High School killings.

Today’s shooting at Virginia Tech comes in the same week, eight years ago, as the April 20 shooting at Columbine.

The police were slowly evacuating students from campus buildings and all classes have been canceled.

Families were told to reunite with students at the Inn at Virginia Tech, a facility of conference space and hotel rooms. The university community was told to assemble on Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum to start to deal with the tragedy, a campus statement said.

A few details emerged from the news conference. At 7:15 a.m., an emergency 911 call came in to University police department about a shooting at a campus building, West Ambler Johnston, a dormitory for about 900 freshman students. About two hours later it was followed by a second shooting at a classroom in a science and engineering building on the opposite end of campus, Norris Hall. The shooter died there, the police said.

“It didn’t stop for almost two or three minutes,” a junior from Fairfax named Josh told CNN. “It sounded like a handgun or something but it was many, many shots.”

Images on CNN showed police with assault rifles swarming several buildings, sirens blaring in the background and a voice over a loudspeaker warning people across the campus to take cover in buildings and stay away from windows. Many students could be seen crouching on floors in classrooms and dormitories.

Police evacuated students and faculty, many of them to local hotels, and witnesses said that some students were seen scrambling out of windows to get to safety. A Montgomery County school official said that all schools throughout the county were being shut down.

----MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS GO OUT TO THOSE THAT LOST LOVED ONES THIS DAY... -JARED